Cisco
From Network Dictionary Wiki
Cisco Systems, Inc. (Template:Nasdaq, Template:Hkse) is an multinational corporation with 54,000 employees and annual revenue of US$35 billion as of 2007. Headquartered in San Jose, California, it designs and sells networking and communications technology and services under five brands, namely Cisco, Linksys, WebEx, IronPort, and Scientific Atlanta. Initially, Cisco manufactured only enterprise multi-protocol routers but gradually diversified its product offering to move into the home user market with the purchase of Linksys while also expanding its offering for corporate customers.
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Corporate history
Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, a married couple that worked in computer operations staff at Stanford University, founded Cisco Systems in 1984. Bosack adapted multiple-protocol router software originally written by William Yeager, another staff employee who had begun the work years before Bosack arrived from the University of Pennsylvania, where Bosack had received his bachelor's degree.
While Cisco was not the first company to develop and sell a router (a device that forwards computer traffic between two or more networks),<ref>http://www.pbs.org/cringely/nerdtv/transcripts/013.html</ref> it was one of the first to sell commercially successful multi-protocol routers, to allow previously incompatible computers to communicate using different network protocols.<ref>Cisco claim of first multi-protocol router</ref> As the Internet Protocol (IP) has become a standard, the importance of multi-protocol routing as a function has declined. Today, Cisco's largest routers are marketed to route primarily IP packets and MPLS frames.
In 1990, the company went public and was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Bosack and Lerner walked away from the company with US$170 million and later divorced.
During the Internet boom in 1999, the company acquired Cerent Corp., a start-up company located in Petaluma, California, for about US$7 billion. It was the most expensive acquisition made by Cisco at that time. Since then, only Cisco's acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta has been bigger.
In late March 2000, at the height of the dot-com boom, Cisco was the most valuable company in the world, with a market capitalization of more than US$500 billion.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2007, with a market cap of about US$180 billion, it is still one of the most valuable companies.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Cisco has made inroads into many network equipment markets outside routing, including Ethernet switching, remote access, branch office routers, ATM networking, security, IP telephony, and others. In 2003, Cisco acquired Linksys, a popular manufacturer of computer networking hardware and positioned it as a leading brand for the home and end user networking market (SOHO).
The company was a 2002-03 recipient of the Ron Brown Award.
Origin of the Cisco name
The name "Cisco" is an abbreviation of San Francisco. According to John Morgridge, employee 34 and the company's former president, the founders hit on the name and logo while driving to Sacramento to register the company -- they saw the Golden Gate Bridge framed in the sunlight.<ref>Template:Cite video</ref> The name cisco Systems (with the lowercase "c") continued in use within the engineering community at the company long after the official company name was changed to Cisco Systems, Inc. Users of Cisco products can still see the name cisco Systems occasionally in bug reports and IOS messages.
The company's logo reflects its San Francisco name heritage: it represents a stylized Golden Gate Bridge. In October 2006, Cisco publicly launched a new logo that is graphically simpler and more stylized than the original.
Corporate affairs
The company has its corporate headquarters in San Jose, California, and also has outposts in other countries.
Cisco's vision is "Changing the Way We Work, Live, Play and Learn." Cisco's current tagline is "Welcome to the human network."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Executives
John Chambers is currently the chairman, president, and CEO.
Other senior executives including:
- Randy Pond - Senior Vice President, Ops, Processes and Systems
- Daniel Scheinman - Senior Vice President, Media Solutions Group
- Rebecca Jacoby - Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer
- Charles H. Giancarlo - Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer
- Dennis D. Powell - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
- Susan Bostrom - Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer
- John N. Stewart - Chief Security Officer, Corporate Security Programs Organization
- Wim Elfrink - Senior Vice President, Customer Advocacy and Chief Globalization Officer
- Joe Pinto - Senior Vice President, Technical Services
- Rick Justice - Senior Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations
- Mark Chandler - Senior Vice Preseident, Chief Legal Council
- Craig Tobias - Senior Solutions Architect, Scientist
Products and services
Partial list of hardware products
- Application Network Services
- Broadband Cable products: uBR7100 series, uBR7200 series, uBR10012 CMTSes. A line of Cable modems, the uBR900 series and CVA122 series, were also made in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but have since been discontinued.
- Clean Access Server
- Content Networking
- DSL & Long Reach Ethernet
- Interoperability Systems
- Cisco LocalDirector load-balancing appliance
- Optical Networking series: 15xxx Series: 15302, 15305, 15310, 15327, 15454, 15600, 1580x, 15900(wavelength router, but end for sale)
- Routers: SB107, 700, 800, 837, 1000 Series, 1600 Series, 1700, 1800, 2500 Series, 2600 Series, 2800, 3600, 3700, 3800, 4000 Series, 7000 Series, 7100, 7200, 7300, 7400, 7500, 7600, 10000, 12000, and CRS-1
- Security & VPN products: Anomaly Detection and Mitigation Appliances, Cisco AVS 3110 Application Velocity System, Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances, Cisco PIX 500 Series Security Appliances, Cisco VPN 3000 Series Concentrators, Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series/7600 Series WebVPN Services Module, IPSec VPN Services Module (VPNSM) for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Switches and Cisco 7600 Series Routers
- Server Networking & Virtualization
- SPA Phone Adapters
- Storage networking
- Switches
- Catalyst series: 500 Express, 1200, 1600, 1700, 1900, 2000, 2100, 2800, 29xx, 3000, 35xx, 37xx, 40xx, 45xx, 5xxx, 6500 etc..
- Metro Ethernet ME 3400 Series Access Switches
- MGX 8800 Series Multiservice Switches: MGX 8830, MGX 8850
- MDS 9000 Series Multilayer SAN Switches
- Universal Gateways & Access Servers
- Video
- Cisco Telepresence
- Voice & IP Communications: 7900 Series IP Phones: 7936, 7906G, 7912G, 7911G, 7920, 7921G, 7911G, 7921G, 7931G, 7940G, 7941G, 7941G-GE, 7960G, 7961G, 7961G-GE, 7970G, 7971G-GE, 7975G and 7985G
- Wireless: Wireless Integrated Switches and Routers,Wireless IP Telephony, Wireless LAN Access, Aironet Wireless Bridges and Workgroup Bridges, Cisco Wireless LAN Client Adapters (PCI and PCMCIA), Wireless LAN Controllers, Wireless Network Management, Wireless LAN Management, Wireless Security Servers, Wireless IP Phone 7920
Partial list of software products
- Cisco Active Network Abstraction (ANA)
- Cisco Network Assistant (CNA)
- Cisco Configuration Assistant (CCA)
- Cisco CallManager / Unified Communications Manager (CUCM)
- Cisco Emergency Responder
- Cisco IP Transfer Point (ITP)
- Cisco Multimedia Conference Manager (MCM)
- Cisco Fabric Manager
- CiscoView
- CiscoWorks Network Management software
- IP SLAs
- Cisco Intelligent Contact Management
- Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS)
- Cisco Access Registrar (AR)
- Cisco Security MARS (Monitoring, Analysis and Response System)
- Cisco Clean Access Agent, Cisco Clean Access Manager, Cisco NAC Appliance
- Content Loadbalancers (acquired from Arrowpoint)
- Content Engine
- Wireless LAN Solution Engine
- Cisco VPN Client
- Packet Tracer
- Cisco IP/TV
- Cisco IP/VC
- Cisco Unified Contact Center
- Cisco MeetingPlace
- Cisco
- Cisco Unity
- Cisco Secure Desktop
- Cisco Security Manager
- WebEx Collaboration Tools
- Cisco Transport Manager
- Cisco Router and Security Device Manager
- Cisco Enhanced Device Interface
- Wireless Control System
- Wide Area Application Services (WAAS)
- BTS 10200
- PGW 2200
- HSI
VoIP services
Cisco became a major provider of Voice over IP to enterprises, and is now moving into the home user market through its acquisitions of Scientific Atlanta and Linksys. Scientific Atlanta provides VoIP equipment to cable service providers such as Time Warner, Cablevision, Rogers Communications, UPC, and others; Linksys has partnered with companies such as Skype and Yahoo to integrate consumer VoIP services with wireless and cordless phones.
Professional training
Cisco has developed and maintains professional curriculum of courses aimed at educating people on networking technologies and Cisco products. The company offers several Cisco Career Certifications to professionals in the networking field. These certifications are attained by successfully completing exams taken at third party testing facilities. Cisco has developed and sponsors Cisco Networking Academies in 150 countries aimed at teaching students to design and maintain computer networks.
Criticisms and controversy
China
Cisco has been criticized for its involvement in censorship in the People's Republic of China.<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/internet/</ref> According to author Ethan Guttman, Cisco and other telecommunications equipment providers supplied the Chinese government with Internet infrastructure equipment that is used to block Internet websites. Cisco says that it does not customize or develop specialized or unique filtering capabilities to enable governments or regimes to block access to information and that it sells the same equipment in China as it sells worldwide.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Shareholder class action lawsuit against Cisco
On August 18, 2006 Cisco reached a settlement in a long-standing class action lawsuit that originated in 2001. "The original suit, filed April 20, 2001, claimed that the company made misleading statements, or omitted statements of material fact, that were relied on by purchasers of Cisco stock. It also alleged that the individual defendants sold Cisco stock while in possession of material, non-public information. Cisco denied all allegations in the suit."<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> While Cisco denies all wrongdoing in the suit, it agreed to settle with the plaintiffs. Cisco's liability insurers, its directors, and officers paid the plaintiffs US$91.75 million to settle the suit.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Cisco lawsuit against Huawei
On January 23, 2003, Cisco sued Huawei Technologies, Co., Ltd and its subsidiaries, Huawei America, Inc. and FutureWei Technologies, Inc. over Huawei's unlawful copying of Cisco's intellectual property.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> The suit alleged that Huawei "unlawfully copied and misappropriated Cisco's IOS software... and infringed numerous Cisco patents." Cisco suspended the patent infringement lawsuit on October 1, 2003, after Huawei agreed to modify some of their products.
See also
- Catalyst switch
- Cisco Career Certifications
- Cisco IOS - the operating system used in Cisco routers
- Cisco Protocols
References
- Cisco Support Wiki
- Cisco Press
- Cisco Systems Home Page
- Cisco on Cisco: Inside Cisco IT Cisco IT case studies, best practices, presentations, video
- Cisco Networking Academy
- Cisco Blogs Home Page
- Information on Cisco Certifications
- Interactive Overview - 20 Years of Cisco
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